Wednesday, August 11, 2010

James Callis on Eureka: "Crossing Over"

OK, so I don't know what's going on, guys. It's like I ordered "Deniselle's Fetish Special" at Café Diem and they brought me just what I want. In this episode: smoking! Defying attempts to make him quit smoking! Even more chub! And even a possible weight gain reference. Did they steal this out of my brain or something? Also, James is hilarious, and in nearly every scene. The notable non-James plot this week is Allison Scagliotti aka "Claudia Donovan" visiting from Warehouse 13. I was sure it would be dull for me since I don't watch that show. It was, instead, a lot of fun. Fargo and Claudia have great personal chemistry. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd watch a Fargo/Claudia spinoff. And Allison was a big squeeing James-fangirl at the panel, so I love her already.

But I'm here to write about James. Everybody's calling him "Charles" by now, but I seem to stick by Grant, not sure why. (Probably because I like Trevor way more than Charles.) Before we see Grant, Carter talks to Henry; he kissed Allison, but "now Old Spice is here with his stupid hats and his 'Ooh, smoking is so cool', and it's complicated." He should totally change his Facebook relationship status. And I love the nickname Old Spice. Not enough to use it, but still, hee!

Allison was last seen getting a double espresso for Grant, because he's going to quit smoking! So of course, when the scene cuts to him, he is smoking...

Henry comes in and tells him that smoking and asthma don't go together. "It's ok, I don't have asthma," says Grant. "Charles? I do," says Henry. Duh, Grant. He puts it out and apologizes: "Old habits die hard." (How about old spice?)

He jams again: "Working at the car wash, baby!" He manages to look SO lame. Henry asks if he's catching up on the lost decades of music.

"70's music is OFF THE HOOK!! Ya know what I'm sayin'?" LOL!!! :D More of this, please!

Now they try the bridge device. Do they get the engine to run? Grant seems nervous.They do!! Yay! I love James' "youthful excitement" look. It makes him look like a boy.

But then, as usual in these scenes, Henry's wife Grace shows up. This is all kinds of awkward because Henry can't remember their life together at all, it happening in an alternate timeline. In this episode, he tries to tell her but can't, and I keep yelling: amnesia! But this isn't a soap so I doubt they'll use it.

Grant excuses himself. Note the mischievious look as he turns the music back on. Hee! I love these little touches he adds to his performance.

Cue piano music. It's James, and he's playing really well. If that really is him playing, and I think it is. I'm not going to go all overboard and say he should be a pianist, but you know, I'd pay to see him in concert. I love that he gets to show his love of music in this role.

She says, "Wow... nice office." I thought she was going to say "Wow, you can play the piano." I love how they gave him an office that's kind of vintage, to help him feel at home. Also: suspenders!

But of course, she has to nag him about the smoking: "Don't make me call Martha to put that thing out." Hee, Martha!! (i.e. the surveillance robot from episode 2.) "It's my last one, have a heart," Grant says. He says smoking is "such a sensual ritual", which may be an attempt to flirt with her and distract her from the whole quiting thing. She doesn't fall for it: "No, emphysema, cancer, heart disease." (Well, it may still be sensual and enjoyable to him, right?)

I don't know about you, but that was one hot scene in my book. Allison pulling the cigarette out of his mouth and him trying to suck on it still = HOT. I'm not sure, however, about the whole health aspect. Not a fan of tough love (and does he even want to quit?) In case someone's interested, I got political about it on LJ, here.

Allison injects some sort of device into Grant. "What is this torture device?" he asks. Allison says it has nanobots that "purge the nicotine out of your system". That sounds practical. Grant thinks so too: now he can just smoke and they will "scrub him clean"! Hee.

..but it sends a huge jolt of pain through him as soon as he inhales. Ow!

Is it just me or is Allison annoyingly smug/sadistic in this scene? She doesn't even warn him that it's going to hurt. I mean, she's gorgeous but would you really want to date someone who treats you like this? Grant does.

He gets to his favorite topic: now that you're torturing me, please at least go out with me. Pleeease? (He's a little more suave than that, but that's the gist of it.)

*PUPPY EYES* How could she not go on a date with him?! She promises to consider it. I would have been all over him by now. Maybe she has better self control, or maybe she's just more into sheriff Carter. To each her own. (But I mean come on.)

OK, so then a scene very important to ME. Lupo has a super health smoothie at Café Diem, and Grant walks in and looks derisively at the smoothie, and Lupo lists all the healthy stuff in it.

And then she says, "You look like you could use one." And - wait what? Was that a reference to his weight gain? First I thought I was reading into it, but then... she does look straight at his gut. And the coat is really tight on him. Much tighter than it was the first few episodes (remember, he had the vest on and could still button it up). What the frak is going on here?

So... Either James gained weight during filming (donuts?!), and they decided to have fun with it. Or they put him in a fat suit because they're building up for a big weight loss episode. I'm not sure how to read this. It doesn't LOOK like a fat suit, but if it's not, why would they have him in a tight suit and, in the next episode, in this super-tight parka? It's like they're emphasizing it: look how chubby! I'm going to assume the universe doesn't exist only to make me horny, so there's gotta be some reasoning behind this. Right?

Either way: GUSH! DROOOOL! *evaporates in fat fetish glee* *tries to come back together to finish the post in a sensible way. We're not even at the A plot yet.*

EDIT: Apparently he was just suffering from appendicitis and had a swollen abdomen. Awww. I feel kinda bad for going on about it. Kinda sorta. Actually how was I to know and, like M said, "he makes appendicitis look good!" So maybe it's all good. James' post here.

..moving on, Grant says, "Like a hole in the head! Call me old-fashioned but I prefer to eat my food, not drink it." He sells it well, but to me, "Need x like a hole in the head" and "call me old-fashioned but" are specifically modern phrases. But whatever.

Grant orders "a steak - potatoes - eggs - butter - two fingers of Scotch." (And you know it's TV because café owner Vinnie doesn't ask him how he wants his steak, what kind of potatoes and eggs. But the point is that these foods are BAD for you, and possibly referring to his weight gain as well, but I can't be sure.)

Vinnie is pretty excited: "A man's order if ever there was one!!" (Edit: I didn't know Vinnie was gay. I think he has a total crush on Grant.) Lupo smugly lists all the bad things in his food: "Cholesterol, starch, salt AND liquor. You'll be dead before dessert." Grant realizes something's missing from his heart attack special: "Dessert! -Coconut cream pie." Lupo, grossed out: "No wonder the life expectancy for men your age is 20 years shorter." (Is that men in their late 30's or men from the 1940's?) Grant is unphased, like he still can't really believe all these health rules. I wouldn't blame him; it's a lot of information to take in in such a short time! "They've been telling me everything that makes life worth living is going to kill you." "Pretty much," agrees Lupo.

Grant's solution to this, and pretty much everything: "I can't take this, I need a smoke."

I must say it's utterly sexy how he smokes here. Maybe it's the look of pleasure on his face or the general sexiness of I don't even know, you guys!

In addition to being a hedonist, Grant seems to have some masochistic tendencies, because he says it's worth the pain. But he looks more like "Ahh, the pain!" I think a device like that might actually get you addicted to the smoking-pain cycle.

Lupo is indignant that he's lighting up: "Second-hand smoke is terrible..." but then she doubles over and falls into Grant's arms.

At the hospital, Grant tries to be helpful: "Listen, I still think it had something to do with that swill she was drinking. They called it a 'smoothie'." :D :D Hee! It's not the smoothie; it is, in fact, a gigantic bullet inside Lupo. Which is pretty weird considering she wasn't shot. She's saved, but turns out the bullet is from... the 1940's. Dun dun dun!

Also: a couple of trees just grew out of the GD floor, a 40's plane showed up at Café Diem, etc. Our time travelers are trying to figure out what happened, and hear about Henry and Grant's tests with the bridge device.

Grant defends himself: the device doesn't have THAT kind of power! Then he coughs terribly and says quitting smoking made him feel worse, rather than better. And he goes out for some air...

And next thing we know he's being CGI'd something fierce.After some science babble, it turns out he's the magnet that's pulling all those 1940's things to him. And if they don't stop it, the two times will collapse into each other. What? How does that even work? The CGI here is meant to represent how Grant is falling apart one molecule at a time. I think. (It looks kind of pretty, with the light and the colors.)

Aww, at least take the pants off him! -Um, not sexually. Just that they look really tight and uncomfortable. Ahem.

Grant coughs blood and a 1940's nuclear missile appears in the room. Grant says that his body will be stuck here even if he dies, and he will continue to pull in stuff from the 40's. They realize that the only way to do this is to somehow neutralize Grant's molecules or whatever, close the wormhole or whatever, science babble bla bla, and Grant will be stuck forever in the 2000's. He thinks about a few minutes, and is willing to do this. It's really kind of heroic. See this, all the people on Twitter saying he's ruining the world again? He's SAVING it. Hero!

I took quite a few screenshots but feel like I can't use most of them. I cannot stand to see James in pain. He just plays it so real. *shuts eyes* *grimaces* *moans* then after a while, he ups the ante: *shuts eyes much tighter* *grimaces harder* *moans harder* Honestly, it's just... real and hurts to watch it. In these scenes, I was hoping he wouldn't be quite such a good actor.

But you know, they use the nicotine patch nanobots to purge the 1940's out of his system - it makes less and less sense to me, but whatever - and it works. Here's two screenshots, I think from when he wasn't yet in terrible pain:

(Trust me, he looks even sicker in a few other screenshots. This one is already almost too much for me.)

And here he is lying there, all healed. Asking Allison out again. He really has a one-track mind.

Awwww, stroking a sick puppy (L) Just do it already, you guys!

Later, Allison meets him at his office. "No, I said get home and rest," she scolds. He hides the stock pages he was looking at (why now?) and says he's just "dotting the i's, crossing the t's, making this transfer permanent." Allison is compassionate now: "You must miss home." Grant says his home is here now: "I'll always have memories of those people." Umm, what people? I wish we'd gotten something of a backstory, but OK, I hate to gripe when we got so much of him int his episode.Grant tells Allison that now that she saved his life, the least he can do is buy her a drink.

"OK, one drink," Allison agrees.

Grant: "One? What, are we gonna share?" Hee!

But they agree to go on a date, finally. So we'll see if they ever get there, perhaps in next week's episode. Either way, I'm loving the brown shirt on James. It's a good color on him.

This just in: according to a Comic Con int, James is doing 9 episodes (and possibly a few more after). So we're ... five episodes into his story. I hope we get a little more of Grant in the episodes to come; I really enjoyed this one, but Allison hasn't even had that date with him yet, and they've been foreshadowing it since episode 1. We don't know very much about Grant in general, and if he's only going to stay for four more eps, I'm hoping for VERY Grant-heavy. James mentioned 7,8, and especially 9 are going to have more Grant, so we can look forward to that. Am I whining too much? I didn't expect to like this role at all and I've loved every minute he's been on screen. So maybe I should just be happy.

I'm consciously omitting 404 "The Story of O2" for now, because it had very little James and I was disappointed. Grant had some cute interaction with Kevin and Allison, but he didn't really get to DO much - he was just there to observe things happening to others. I'm really relieved, though, that his whole role hasn't been like that. Next week: if noting else, James in an amusing-looking parka!